Michel de Verteuil
General Comments
Today’s gospel reading, like all of St John’s gospel, is an interweaving of several themes. It is not possible to follow up all the themes together; we must focus on one at a time, going deeply into it and allowing it to reveal some deep truth about Jesus, about ourselves and about life.Here I invite you to focus on the apostle Thomas; this is in accord with the Catholic Church’s liturgical tradition for the Second Sunday of Easter. Therefore, although the reading includes two of Jesus’ resurrection appearances – both of them deeply moving – we stay with the second, the dialogue between Jesus and Thomas, and let the earlier appearance provide the context. We are free to identify either with Thomas or with Jesus, but not with both at the same time. We need to be clear on how we understand Thomas. The popular interpretation puts him in a bad light, as “doubting Thomas”. This however is not the movement of the text, which culminates in Thomas’ admirable act of faith, the most explicit in the New Testament – “My Lord and my God!”.
We are more in accord with the spirit of the text, therefore, when we look at Thomas as a model of faith. He was right to insist that before he could believe in Jesus’ resurrection he must see the holes the nails made in his hands, put his finger into the holes and his hand into the great wound made by the centurion’s lance.
Thomas teaches us the important lesson that we must not separate the resurrection from the cross, since we are called to be followers of Jesus. He also teaches us the truth of the Church and of our individual spiritual growth. We cannot live the life of grace, the “risen life”, authentically unless we bear in our bodies the wounds of the cross. This means being conscious that we develop the capacity to love and to be loved only by dying to ourselves. Our wounds are also a constant reminder of our frailty, and that it is God’s grace that raises us up to new life.
St Paul’s epistles show that the first Christians needed the corrective of Thomas’ faith. They tended to relate with the risen Jesus without reference to his crucifixion. They forgot that they were called to be “followers of Jesus crucified”, choosing to die with him so that they could rise with him (see especially 1 Corinthians 1).We Christians fall into the same error today when our lives and our teachings proclaim an abstract “disembodied” Jesus, dispenser of graces and teacher of morality – we forget the historical person who was put to death for proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Thomas professes the true faith of the Church. We too must insist that the Jesus we follow is the true Jesus, the one whose risen body bears the wounds of Calvary.
Jesus is the model leader and spiritual guide. He is pleased to give Thomas the assurance he is looking for, and then challenges him to look forward to the day when he will believe without seeing – always in the Jesus who passes through death to resurrection.
The blessedness of believing without seeing came from the experience of the early Church. Jesus is not moralizing, but inviting Thomas – and us – to celebrate great people of faith, in our local communities and world-wide, who take up their cross with confidence in the resurrection.
As always in our meditation we must not limit ourselves to personal relationships. We celebrate the resurrection faith lived by communities, nations and cultures.
Prayer reflection
“You who remain ever faithful even when we are unfaithful, forgive our sins and grant that we may bear true witness to you before all men and women.” Pope John Paul II, Service of Forgiveness, March 2000
Lord, we thank you for the moments of grace of this Lenten season,
when – as individuals and as a Church community –
we walked in the footsteps of Jesus by passing from death to new life.
We thank you in particular for the great day when our Church publicly asked forgiveness from other religions and cultures.
We thank you for Pope John Paul who, like Jesus with St Thomas,
invited us to see the holes that the nails of arrogance and self-righteousness
had made in the body of Christ, and to put our fingers into the holes,
to put our hands into the huge wound which the lust for power has made in his side,
so that we could recognise how, just as you raised Jesus from the dead,
you do not allow his Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb,
but always raise her up to new life.
Lord, we thank you for the times when reconciliation emerged triumphantlyinvited us to see the holes that the nails of arrogance and self-righteousness
had made in the body of Christ, and to put our fingers into the holes,
to put our hands into the huge wound which the lust for power has made in his side,
so that we could recognise how, just as you raised Jesus from the dead,
you do not allow his Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb,
but always raise her up to new life.
from the tomb of conflict:
– the spirit of dialogue between our Church and Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
and African traditional religions;
– the European Union created by former enemies;
– the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland;
– the peace process in the Middle East.
Lord, we thank you for the experience of the military in Iraq.
We pray that they will to hear your voice calling on them all
to remember those who have been hurt,
who still have holes that the nails made in their hands
and can put their finger into the holes they made,
and unless they can put their hands into their side, they will refuse to believe.
Do not let us forget the terrible legacy of hatred and resentment
which had to be overcome;
invite us to put our fingers into the holes made by nails,
our hands into the great wounds made by lances,
so that we can recognise with awe and wonder
the spark of your divine life that is within us all.
Remind us too of those who worked for peace during the long years of conflict
when it seemed that they were working in vain.
How blessed were they who did not see
and yet continued to believe in your power to bring new life into the world.
“Whoever sees anything of God, sees nothing of God .” … Meister Eckhart
Lord, lead us to the blessedness of not seeing and believing.
“Go for broke, always try to do too much, dispense with safety nets, aim for the stars.” …Salman Rushdie
Lord, we thank you for friends, leaders and spiritual guides
who challenge us as Jesus challenged Thomas.
When we commit ourselves to a cause because we have tested its reality, they invite us to experience the blessedness of believing without seeing.
“Beware of the seduction of leaving the poor to think about them.” …Jean Vanier
Lord, forgive us that we want to help those in need without sharing their pain,
we look for their resurrection but do not want to see their wounds:
– young people have been deeply hurt and we serve them with pious exhortations;
– we become impatient with those who continue to mourn the death of a spouse or a child;
– we think we can restore a broken relationship by merely saying we are sorry;
– we propose reconciliation between warring factions without acknowledging past wrongs;
– we pray for peace in the world and do not agonize over its terrible injustices.
We thank you for people like Thomas who will not let us get away with easy solutions;
they insist that we must see the holes that nails have made in the hands of victims,
put our fingers into the holes and our hands into wounds that lances have made in their sides,
and only then believe that they have within them the capacity to rise to new life.
“We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.” …Step 5 in the 12 Step Method of Alcoholics Anonymous
Lord, when we are converted from an addiction to alcohol, drugs, power or sex,
we are so anxious to make a new start
that we try to forget the hurt which was at the root of our problem
– the loneliness of our childhood
– the sense of racial inferiority
– our disability
– the fear of failure.
We thank you for sending us friends who insist
that we must face the reality of the past.
We pray that like Jesus welcoming Thomas,
we will invite them to put their fingers into the holes the nails have made
and their hands into our sides, so that they can walk with us in our new life.
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Thomas O’Loughlin,
Introduction to the Celebration
In today’s gospel, St John tells us to about an appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples gathered together on a Sunday exactly a week after Easter. John sets the appearance of Jesus on a Sunday because he knows that that is the day when Christians gather for the Eucharist – a practice that marks us out to this day. So like those disciples we have gathered here for the Eucharist and Christ is now among us. We do not see him here today as on that first Sunday after Easter, but we recall the words Christ spoke on that occasion: ‘Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’Homily Notes
1. Belief in the risen Christ is about sacramental living: ‘happy are they who have not seen and yet believe: It is about dying and rising with Christ and becoming part of him, the church (CoI2:12) – the mystery of baptism; it is about gathering for his meal that transforms us from being individuals into being ‘one body for we all share in the one loaf’ (1 Cor 10:17) – the mystery of the Eucharist. Baptism is the sacrament of entering, defining the bounds of the body; the Eucharist is the sacrament of sustaining, keeping the body in communion with Christ and between its parts. Both these aspects of the Paschal Mystery keep recurring in the liturgy; both sacraments are inextricably linked with one another, and have been since the earliest days.
2. However, while we may preach these links as abstract items of doctrine, in the minds of most people in the gathering today the two mysteries are as chalk and cheese. A ‘christening’ is something that belongs to infants and lots of people have the children christened because that’s what you do – in all likelihood everyone in the congregation has been to one such ceremony. And, while it ‘makes you a Christian’ or ‘a Catholic/ this is recalled primarily as a social bonding. The Mass, by contrast, is something you go to each week ‘if you are religious/ and it is about praying, getting communion (optional), and about ‘getting thoughts of the week’. The ministry of preaching has to try to permeate these perceptions and reveal the deeper dimensions of religious practice, and so highlight the core content of Christian faith. Actions tend to break through the crusts of tacitly held perceptions with a far greater effect than formal verbal teaching or preaching (recalling that part of the perception of preaching for many is that it is irrelevant or ‘goes over their heads’).3. This could be done by having an infant baptism on this day the people who are practising and away from the parish on Easter Night may now be back and so can have their baptism today – at the Eucharist. Or, at the very least, by using today (as on Easter Sunday) the Renewal of Baptismal Promises (Miss at pp. 220-221) instead of a declaratory confession of faith. This activity, the baptism or the renewal of promises, brings the mysteries together visibly – and not just on that most special night (the Easter Vigil) but at a regular Sunday gathering.
4. Then taking the cue from the gospel, that the Sunday gathering around the Lord’s Table for the Lord’s Supper has been a fundamental activity of Christians from the start (long before we had any of the writings now called the New Testament), then make the gathering a real, physical gathering around the table, with a real fraction, and communion under both species from one cup.
5. The fact that the assembly have to engage in the ritual in these unusual ways, not just listening to a homily, may help them engage with the mysteries they are celebrating.
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3. Sean Goan
Gospel: John 19-31
In this very packed gospel many different facets of the Easter mystery are presented. Firstly, we note that Jesus appears to the community gathered on a Sunday, they rejoice at his presence and experience through him the gift of the Holy Spirit and are given a mission, sent just as Jesus himself was. That is as good a summary of what Sunday Eucharist is all about as you will ever find. Joy in the presence of the risen Lord who gives us his peace so that we can continue his task of revealing God to the world. Thankfully Thomas is missing, because his refusal to believe means that the following Sunday we need to gather again, and once again as a community of faith encounter Christ among us. Now, by a wonderful irony it is Thomas who leads us in our appropriate response as we acknowledge Jesus as Our Lord and Our God.Reflection
Our readings for today, while they differ greatly in style, both reflect the extent to which the early church understood itself as totally dependent on the presence of the risen Christ within it. The first believers in Jerusalem were Jewish yet they stood out among their own people because of the witness that they offered. They impressed people with their care for one another and their prayerfulness. So too among the churches of the book of Revelation the faithful stood out from their contemporaries because, even when faced with persecution, their lives were characterised by hope and love. These are the fruits of Easter and remind us that we must celebrate as a community, and not only as individual the abiding presence of Jesus as our Lord and God.
Early Christian Jews
4. Donal Neary S.J.
Gospel reflections
Only faith
Jesus spoke in short sentences and summed up a lot of life in a few words. His final beatitude is in the gospel today – Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. You can unpack that little phrase and in it you realise that faith is about things that cannot be proved, that it is not easy and that it brings a blessedness to life. It also includes ourselves – the ones of this year who still believe.
Something is only by faith when everything else fades off. Our loved ones die and only faith assures us that they are alive with God. Only faith assures us that Jesus is present in the mystery of the bread and wine at our Mass. Only faith assures us that he is with us when two or three gather and only faith assures us that what we do for others we do for him. Faith assures us of some of the best things of life; finally that we come from God and go to God.Thomas found difficulty with all this. Jesus dealt gently with him, pointing out the wounds of his body and inviting him to touch them. But Thomas never needed to touch the holes in Jesus’ hands and feet. He was told that an even better happiness was to believe without touch or sight. He found faith now in the risen Lord, and the faith itself was Jesus7 final gift to Thomas.
We need to take time and let faith grow within us. This can be in prayer, in faith-conversation and in allowing ourselves sit quietly and be in the presence of God. In the busy world, this may be difficult, but no day is diminished by time spent in silence and in quiet, knowing we are richly blessed when we grow our faith in God.
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From the Connections:
THE WORD:
The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter (for all three years of the Lectionary cycle) is Act 2 of John’s Easter drama.Scene 1 takes place on Easter night. The terrified disciples are huddled together, realizing that they are marked men because of their association with the criminal Jesus. The Risen Jesus appears in their midst with his greeting of “peace.” John clearly has the Genesis story in mind when the evangelist describes Jesus as “breathing” the Holy Spirit on his disciples: Just as God created man and woman by breathing life into them (Genesis 2: 7), the Risen Christ re-creates humankind by breathing the new life of the Holy Spirit upon the eleven.
In scene 2, the disciples excitedly tell the just-returned Thomas of what they had seen. Thomas responds to the news with understandable skepticism. Thomas had expected the cross (see John 11: 16 and 14: 5) -- and no more.
The climactic third scene takes place one week later, with Jesus’ second appearance to the assembled community -- this time with Thomas present. He invites Thomas to examine his wounds and to “believe.” Christ’s blessing in response to Thomas’ profession of faith exalts the faith of every Christian of every age who “believes without seeing”; all Christians who embrace the Spirit of the Risen One possess a faith that is in no way different less than that of the first disciples. The power of the Resurrection transcends time and place.
HOMILY POINTS:
We trace our roots as parish and faith communities to Easter night when Jesus “breathed” his spirit of peace and reconciliation upon his frightened disciples, transforming them into the new Church.The peace of the Risen Christ is more than just the absence of conflict, more than just the quiet, unchallenged acceptance of another’s heartless behavior or selfish expectations. Christ’s peace is the hard work of loving when it is most difficult to love, of putting aside one’s own disappointments and doubts for the sake of the common good, of forgiving when we are too angry or disappointed, of reaching out even when we are sure we will be rebuffed or rejected.
Jesus’ entrusting to the disciples the work of forgiveness is what it means to be the church: to accept one another, to affirm one another, to support one another as God has done for us in the Risen Christ. What brought the apostles and first Christians together as a community -- unity of heart, missionary witness, prayer, reconciliation and healing -- no less powerfully binds us to one another as the Church of today.
All of us, at one time or another, experience the doubt and skepticism of Thomas: Thomas neither doubts nor rejects: he recognizes that each one of us possesses, within ourselves, the grace to seek God and discover for ourselves the truth about what God is doing in our lives. True faith is not passive acquiescence to a set of dogmas; faith is to be actively engaged in seeking God’s presence in every facet of our life, to be open in mind and heart to identify signs of resurrection and re-creation in our midst.
We all have scars from our own Good Fridays that remain long after our own experiences of resurrection. Our “nail marks” remind us that all pain and grief, all ridicule and suffering are transformed into healing and peace in the love of God we experience from others and that we extend them.
Faith of which I’m certain . . .
Two times two is four; two times three is six; two times four is eight . . — of that, I am positive. When I put gasoline in my gas tank, my car will run — that I know.
When I strike a certain combination of keys on the piano, I create music — I’ve learned how to do that.
In such knowledge and experience there is certainty.
Real certainty does not require hope. I don’t need to “hope” two and two equals four. But I do need to hope that my belief —well-founded, to be sure — that my spouse loves me is grounded in reality and is not an illusion. Some might argue that my spouse’s love for me is something I want to believe in, to console myself in this lonely life. I might not be able to conclusively disprove this — but I believe I have quite solid grounds to believe in the reality of my spouse’s love for me, a love that transcends feelings, feelings which may vary from day to day.
Many nonbelievers equate faith with certainty, or with a desire for explanations: how the world came to be, why the good suffer, what we are here for. And some who consider themselves “believers” make superstitious use of religion — but few serious believers think of faith that way.
For men and women of “faith,” real faith is a perception, a way of looking at life, a form of gratitude — and very far from anything like explanation or certainty. Faith is the hope that God’s love is different, that whatever our limited love may be, God’s love is perfect, complete, unconditional. God’s love shows itself in the covenant with Israel, in the Incarnation, in Jesus’ teaching and death for us, in the hope of resurrection, in what we are asked to become.
Our relationship with all of this has to do with hope, not certainty; our faith is an ability to see and hear and behold our life and our world that enables us, in the midst of doubts and uncertainty, to trust.
[From “Reasons for Our Hope” by John Garvey, Commonweal, August 15, 2008.]
In today’s Gospel, Thomas is looking for certainty, but Jesus offers him something else: a reason to hope, a base line for belief, a prism for looking at the world with gratitude for what has been and what will be. The Risen One is the manifestation of such promise and hope: that we are loved, that our lives matter, that we are becoming the people God made us to be. Oh, there are our “Thomas” moments of doubt when we are not sure where or how to proceed, when we question our own motives and the motives of others, when all seems lost and pointless. But the gift of faith is the ability to hope that we can transform and remake, re-create and re-focus, our lives in the love of God and in the life of the Risen Christ. May this Easter, especially in these difficult times, illuminate our spirits with the light of such hope.
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From Fr. Jude Botelho:
Everything that happens evokes a response. What is your personal response to the Resurrection? A man fell in a ditch. Realist: That's a ditch. Optimist: Things will get better. Pessimist: Things will get worse. Newspaper reporter: I will pay you for an exclusive story about life in the ditch. City: Did you get a permit for your ditch life? Mathematician: I will calculate the length and depth and width of the ditch. Income tax agent: Have you paid your taxes for the ditch? A Man: "Give me your hand!" and his name is Jesus of Divine Mercy.
Have a faith-filled Divine Mercy Sunday!
Cosmic Union and Christic Communion
In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi narrates how, as a student in South Africa, he read the Bible and was fascinated by the person of Christ. He believed that Christianity was the best antidote for the caste system in India, and even considered converting to Christianity. However, on one of visits to a church he was shown the door and told he could only attend Mass in a church reserved for blacks. He left, never to return. Even though Christianity preaches love and equality, we have built churches dividing whites and blacks in South Africa and so called ‘high’ and ‘low castes’ in India. But, is there any ‘model church’ we can emulate in designing Christian communities for our times? The first line of the first reading tells us: “The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for one’s own use anything that one had, as everything they owned was held in common.” We are called to be witnesses to communion.
Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’
The post-resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ starts with the fact that the disciples are huddled behind closed doors fearful of what might happen to them, now that their master has gone. The have closed the doors and yet Jesus comes through the barrier they have created and stands in their midst. “Peace be to you!" Is his first greeting. No matter what we have done, He comes to bring us peace. He comes to fill us with his Spirit, the Spirit of new hope, the Spirit of joy. The second focus of the Gospel is on Thomas, one of the twelve, who was not present when the Lord appeared to the rest and who begins to question and doubt the Risen Lord's presence. He goes further than that, he demands proof. Many of us could easily identify with Thomas the doubter. We miss out on the gifts that the Lord freely gives. Our faith is shaken and we demand proofs. The Lord giving in to the demands of doubting Thomas comes to him on his terms. “Here I am Thomas! Put your finger into the holes the nails have made. Put your hand into the wound in my side! Doubt no longer but believe." Thomas's response is an act of faith: “My Lord and my God!" Jesus' response to Thomas is one that is relevant to all of us who have doubts from time to time. “Thomas, you believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!" There will be times in our lives, when we will demand proof from God, when we will ask for signs from Him, when we want to feel his presence when we feel forsaken. It is at these times that we are called to believe though we don't see, though we don't feel His loving presence. “Doubt No longer but believe!"
Doubting Thomasses
The doubting Thomas saga is often glibly used to dismiss even the most reasonable reservations about a project. Of course, it is frequently invoked by people who have long forgotten its gospel origin. Thomas is in the not uncommon situation of being remembered for his limitations rather than for his finer qualities. He was the courageous one who suggested that all the disciples should go and die with the Lord in Jerusalem when danger threatened the Master. He was honest and open in saying that he did not understand a word when Jesus was talking about being the way to the Father. But it is for his unwillingness to believe in the resurrection of Jesus that he has gone down in history. Yet, his hesitancy was understandable. The others believed because they had been in the presence of the risen Lord. Without this personal experience they would not have been convinced. Despite his doubting, once he dramatically accepted the fact that Jesus was risen, Thomas committed his whole life to believing in the Lord and to sharing this treasure with the world. Our times need many Thomases!
Tom Clancy in ‘Living the Word’
Nurture new life
In 1910 a young explorer was travelling in the French Alps when he came upon a wasteland, a barren stretch of land desolate and abandoned. He had travelled about five miles into this God-forsaken territory when in the distance he saw what looked like the stump of a tree. On approaching, he discovered the stooped figure of a little old man with a sack of acorns on his back and an iron staff in his hand. With the staff he made a hole in the ground, dropped in an acorn and filled the hole. He was planting oak trees. He told the explorer that he had planted 100,000 in the past three years. “If I get one in ten, I’ll be happy,” he said, adding that his wife and only son had died and that as long as the Lord spared him he would carry on planting trees to bring back life to a land that was dying. Fifty years later the explorer returned to a sight wondrous to behold. The acorns of 1910 had become an oak forest, eleven kilometres long by three kilometres wide. There were beech trees along the slopes as far as the eyes could see. Birds were singing in the trees, wildlife frolicked in the shade and streams flowed with water in groves that has been bone dry. At the entrance to the forest was a linden tree, the symbol of re-birth. And as he gazed in wonder he thought of the old unlettered peasant who had worked alone in utter solitude to turn a desert into the land of Canaan and had completed a task worthy of God. We may not be able to change the world but we can do something about the little patch where we live. The sack of acorns and the iron staff are in our hands.
James Feeban in ‘Story Power’
Happy are those who have not seen, yet believe.
“I remember one occasion when I led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of the young men in the group was quite mentally limited, although his grasp of God, of Jesus, and the events of the gospel was uncanny. We arrived at the tomb of the basilica, and we joined the long line, waiting our turn to enter. One lady came out of the tomb, and was obviously deeply touched by the experience of her visit to such a sacred spot. She sat down outside the entrance, took out a tissue, and began wiping her tears. My friend, who was back in the line, spotted what was happening, and responded instantly. He ran straight up to her, put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Don’t be crying, It’s Ok. He’s alive; don’t you know that?” The whole thing was so spontaneous and genuine that the woman stood up, and gave him a warm hug. The simple fact was that he could not understand how anybody could be crying at this tomb, of all the tombs in the world. -Jesus thanked the father for giving a message that was so simple and straightforward that the intellectual and the worldly-wise would fail to grasp it, and yet it could be fully accepted by someone with the mind of a child. Happy are they who have not seen yet believe…”
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel Truth!’
Showing them his wounds
His Holiness Pope John Pail II passed away on 2nd April 2005. He shepherded the Catholic Church for nearly twenty-seven years. He cheated death many times. At the beginning of his pontificate, an attempt of assassination was made on him (1981). He had colon cancer in 1992; he suffered shoulder and hip injuries in 1992 and 1993; he had his appendix removed in 1996, and in 2001 it was confirmed that he suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Towards the end of his life, he was visibly in pain, but he united it with the sufferings of Christ, and bore with it with extraordinary serenity. One day, while he was giving a press conference, one reporter asked him, “Holy Father, kindly excuse me for being bold. You are aged, your hands are shaking due to Parkinson’s disease, your voice is feeble and inaudible, and you find it difficult to walk. You are suffering a lot and you are incapacitated in your work. Why don’t you resign and take rest, and make way for the others to take over? The Holy Father said, “If Jesus had come down from the cross, I, too, would have resigned. Since, He remained on the cross and suffered, I too, am holding on to my responsibility, and am suffering.” The suffering, which the Pope was undergoing, was because he loved Christ and the people whom Christ had entrusted to him. The Holy Father’s sufferings were the tokens of his love.
John Rose in ‘John’s Sunday Homilies’
Resurrection and economics….
The Christian faith has profound economic implications. Any preaching of the Good News that shuns this reality denies the Gospel and Jesus’ teaching. In Acts we see that one of the strong witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection is the way his disciples order their economic lives. Resurrection and economics have spiritual connections to how the Church lives out its mission and are key to the Church’s involvement in peace and justice ministry. Acts 4 is about resurrection power in our living and our economics. Resurrection in Acts is not so much a doctrine to be believed as a power to be experienced. Trying to prove the historicity of the resurrection may distract us from discovering this power in our lives as we engage the powers of domination today. The early Church community lived out this resurrection power in the way they arranged their lives, their relationships to one another, and their economics. The Church today needs to experience this kind of resurrection power if we are going to be an effective presence in a world torn apart by violence, poverty, greed, and fear. One of the first important signs of resurrection power in the early Church was the strong sense of community.
Larry Hollar in ‘Hunger for the Word’
Larry Hollar in ‘Hunger for the Word’
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From Fr.. Tony Kadavil:
1) "Well, then, I will have mercy."
Emperor Napoleon was moved by a mother's plea for pardon for her soldier son. However, the emperor said that since it was the man’s second major offense, justice demanded death. "I do not ask for justice," implored the mother, "I plead for mercy." "But," said the emperor, "he does not deserve mercy." "Sir," cried the mother, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." The compassion and clarity of the mother's logic prompted Napoleon to respond, "Well, then, I will have mercy." The Second Sunday of the Easter season invites us to reflect on God’s infinite love and mercy for His people, as detailed in the Bible and as lived and taught by Jesus, and to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
2) St. Faustina and the Image of
the Divine Mercy:
St. Faustina of Poland
Believing in this love means believing in
mercy." “The Lord of Divine Mercy” a drawing of Jesus based on the vision
given to St. Faustina, shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of
blessing, with his left hand on his chest from which gush forth two rays, one
red and one white. The picture contains the message "Jesus, I trust in
You!" (Jezu ufam Tobie). The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red
for the blood of Jesus, which is the life of souls and white for the water
which justifies souls. The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness
and love of God.
3) Mayor’s mercy:
One
night in 1935, Fiorello H. La Guardia, mayor of New York
As he spoke, he threw $10 into his hat. He then
fined everyone in the courtroom 50 cents for living in a city "where an
old woman had to steal bread so that her grandchildren should not starve."
The hat was passed around, and the woman left the courtroom with her fine paid
and an additional $47.50.
4) Traffic cop’s mercy:
A priest
was forced, by a traffic police, to pull over for speeding. As the cop was
about to write the ticket, the priest said to him, "Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." The cop handed the priest the
ticket, and said, "Go, and sin no more."
5) Photographer’s mercy:
The
story is told of a politician who, after receiving the proofs of a picture, was
very angry with the photographer. He stormed back to the man's studio and
screamed at him: "This picture does not do me justice!" The
photographer replied, "Sir, with a face like yours, what you need is
mercy, not justice!"
6) Divine Mercy in action:
A TIME
magazine issue in 1984 presented a startling cover. It pictured a prison cell where two men sat on
metal folding chairs. The young man wore a black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans
and white running shoes. The older man was dressed in a white robe and had a
white skullcap on his head. They sat facing one another, up-close and
personal. They spoke quietly so as to keep others from hearing the
conversation. The young man was Mehmet Ali Agca, the pope’s would-be assassin
(he shot and wounded the Pope on May 13, 1981); the other man was Pope John
Paul II, the intended victim. The Pope held the hand that had held the gun
whose bullet tore into the Pope’s body. This was a living icon of mercy. John
Paul’s forgiveness was deeply Christian. His deed with Ali Agca spoke a
thousand words. He embraced his enemy and pardoned him. At the end of their
20-minute meeting, Ali Agca raised the Pope’s hand to his forehead as a sign of
respect. John Paul shook Ali Agca’s hand tenderly. When the Pope left the cell
he said, “What we talked about must remain a secret between us. I spoke to him
as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.” This is an
example of God’s Divine Mercy, the same Divine Mercy whose message St. Faustina
witnessed.
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If I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask
you to write down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you
would come up with the same words. If I were to mention the name of Judas many
of you would write down the word "betray" but not all of you. If I were to
mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not all
of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would
write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you. But when I mention
the word Thomas, there is little question about the word most everyone would
write down. It would be the word doubt. Indeed, so closely have we associated
Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to describe him: "Doubting
Thomas."
You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.
When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
Unfortunately history has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem... ___________________________
One of the fastest growing, most profitable investment ventures
in today's economy is . . . . anything having anything to do with security. You
couldn't have lost money in the last twenty years if you invested in storage or
security: national security, personal security, home security, financial
security, Internet security. The dangers of this world seem to be breathing
hotter and closer down our necks. Any offering that promises to cool that threat
down is welcomed with open arms and wallets. You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.
When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
Unfortunately history has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem... ___________________________
We gladly invest in "LifeLock" and "Life Alert" and "Alert Life"-
hoping to safeguard both our fiscal and physical lives. Instead of scripted
shows by the Blue Angels at air-shows, we are sending long-range spontaneous
shows of strength in the form of stealth bombers over South Korean airspace,
which offends North Korea. We have "apps" on our smartphones that enable us to
watch our front doors at home and our backdoors at work, to turn on our lights
and turn off our heat, to be on-guard and on-point, even when we are off-site.
We are desperately trying to contain the chaos of the cosmos.
In John's gospel, Jesus' first appearance to his disciples is when he
comes to them behind closed, locked doors. Despite the vision of the empty tomb,
despite the version of the resurrected Jesus Mary Magdalene had reported to
them, the disciples were still shuttered and shuddering - clamped down and
closed off from a threatening world. Then Jesus blasts through their ADT
security system, blows out their "LifeLock," and suddenly stands in their
midst...
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We Know Where We Are Going
The story is told about Albert Einstein, the brilliant physicist of
Princeton University in the early 20th century. Einstein was traveling from
Princeton on a train, and when the conductor came down the aisle to punch the
passengers' tickets, Einstein couldn't find his. He looked in his vest pocket,
he looked in his pants pocket, he looked in his briefcase, but there was no
ticket. The conductor was gracious; "Not to worry, Dr. Einstein, I know who you
are, we all know who you are, and I'm sure you bought a ticket."
As the conductor moved down the aisle, he looked back and noticed
Einstein on his hands and knees, searching under the seat for his ticket. The
conductor returned to Einstein; "Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry. I know
who you are. You don't need a ticket, I'm sure you bought one." Einstein arose
and said "Young man, I too know who I am; what I don't know is where I am
going."
And that is the good news of Easter; that we know where we are going.
We have been told by the Savior that his life and death has promised us life
eternal. And Low Sundays don't change that promise. And unemployment doesn't
change that promise. Neither does divorce, or bankruptcy, or cancer, or
depression, or felony, or failure. Through elation and deflation and every
emotion in between, this truth remains; we know whose we are and we know where
we are going, because the Son of God has promised. And this, my friends, is
faith.
Steven Molin, Elated....Deflated
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A New Shalom
When Jesus appeared to the disciples, his greeting was, "Peace be
unto you." The Hebrew word shalom, for "peace," is a most comprehensive word,
covering the full realm of relationships in daily life and expressing an ideal
state of life. The word suggests the fullness of well-being and harmony
untouched by ill fortune. The word as a blessing is a prayer for the best that
God can give to enable a person to complete one's life with happiness and a
natural death. If the concept of shalom became all too casual and light-hearted
with no more significance than a passing greeting, Jesus came to give it new
meaning. At Bethlehem God announced that peace would come through the gift of
God's unique Son. The mission and ministry of our Lord made it quite clear that
Jesus had come to introduce the rule of God and to order peace for the world.
Harry N. Huxhold, Which Way To Jesus?, CSS Publishing
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The Greatest Scar Story
I can think of no better modern-day illustration of the sacrifice
Jesus made for us than a recent scar story I heard from a tennis friend of mine.
As we were waiting for another match to finish, she was relating how badly her
knees hurt. This friend is the most fit 30-something-year-old I know. Yet she
sat beside me with a brace on each knee. I pointed to the open hole of her knee
brace and asked if her scar was from knee surgery. She told me, "No, it's from
my son, and I actually have an identical scar on my other knee."
You see, several years ago she scooped up her toddler son from the
swimming pool and began to walk towards a lounge chair. As she stepped onto the
tiled patio, her foot slipped on the wet slick surface. She was also seven
months pregnant, and it was one of those moments where you feel like you're
moving in slow motion but there's nothing you can do to stop the fall. Within a
split second, she knew her momentum was toppling her forward, and she could
either face-plant and land on top of both her son and her unborn child, or she
could fall on her knees.
Of course, as any loving parent would do, she chose to fall on her
knees directly onto the unforgiving concrete. Her knees immediately burst open
and blood went everywhere. She ended up needing stitches, which resulted in
scars, but her son and unborn child were both unscathed. It is hard for me to
tell this story without tearing up, because to me, it serves as a miniscule
example of the immense sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ for us. You see, we
are the beloved children of God for whom Jesus took the fall. Christ suffered on
the cross and endured unimaginable pain for us. His is the greatest scar story
ever told.
Christi O. Brown, Scars of Hope
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Peace Be With You...It Already Is!
Peace Be With You...It Already Is!
Theologian Karl Barth once remarked that to say the old line from the
creed, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church" does not mean that we believe in
the church. It means rather to believe that God is present and at work in the
church, that "in this assembly, the work of the Holy Spirit takes place. ... We
do not believe in the Church: but we do believe that in this congregation the
work of the Holy Spirit becomes an event."
Barth's words rang true for me some years ago, when I was invited by
a church in a nearby town to be the worship leader at a special evening
communion service. The church staff had planned this service to be educational
as well as worshipful. The idea was that, first, the congregation would gather
in the sanctuary and I would give a brief talk about the meanings of the Lord's
Supper. Then, we would go into the fellowship hall and be seated around tables
for the service itself.
At each table there would be the flour and other ingredients to form
the dough for the communion loaves. The plan called for each table to prepare a
loaf and, while the loaves baked in the ovens of the church kitchen, the people
at each table were to engage in various exercises designed to get them talking
about their experiences in the faith.
It was a good idea, but like many well-planned events, things looked
better on the drawing board than they turned out in reality. There were
problems. Children at many tables began to play in the baking ingredients, and
white clouds of flour floated around the room coating everybody and everything.
There were delays in the kitchen, and the communion bread baked with agonizing
slowness. Some of the tables ran out of things to say; children grew weary and
fussy; the room was filled with commotion and restlessness. The planners had
dreamed of an event of excitement, innovation, peak learning, and moving
worship. What happened was noise, exhaustion, and people making the best of a
difficult situation. In other words, despite the rosy plans, it was the real
church worshipping down there in the church basement.
Finally, the service ended, and, with no little relief, I was able to
pronounce the benediction. "The peace of Christ be with you all," I said, and
just as I did, a child's voice from somewhere in the room called out strong and
true, "It already is."
Just that -- "It already is" -- but with those words the service was
transformed into an event of joy and holy mystery. That small voice captured
what the Gospel of John is trying to say. In the midst of a church that can
claim nothing for itself, a church of noise, confusion, weariness, and even
fear, the risen Christ comes to give peace. The peace of Christ be with you?
Because the risen Christ comes to inhabit our empty places, then, as the child
said, "It already is," and the church with nothing becomes the church with
everything.
Thomas G. Long, Whispering The Lyrics, CSS Publishing
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We Want Proof
We Want Proof
There is a reason why many Christians around the world have latched so quickly and
tenaciously onto the discovery of what may be the ossuary or burial box for
James, the brother of Jesus. There's a reason why every time archaeologists
discover some inscription referring to King David, Pontius Pilate, or some other
biblical figure that this news immediately makes a splash in the pages of
Christianity Today. Here, we are told, is further "proof" that the stuff in the
Bible really did happen! There's a reason why there is now a huge enterprise
that is literally scouring the universe for evidence that the formation of the
cosmos required the hand of a Creator God. It's not just that we want to meet
evolutionary and atheist scientists on their own turf--most folks also quietly
hanker for something tangible that can bolster the confidence they have in their
faith.
Over and again we find ourselves wanting more.
Jesus himself knows that faith is both a blessing and a miracle.
That's why he says in verse 29 that while it was one thing for Thomas to believe
with Jesus standing right in front of him, it would one day be quite another
thing to believe without such undeniable physical proof standing in the same
room.
Scott Hoezee, "Wanting More"
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Honey...It's Me
Perhaps you've heard the story of the Yugoslavian judge who was
electrocuted when he reached up to turn on the light while standing in the
bathtub. No, I'm not cruel or weird, let me tell you the rest of the story. This
guy's poor wife found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. He was pronounced
dead and was placed in a preparation room under a crypt in the town cemetery for
twenty-four hours before burial.
Well, and this is the part I love, in the middle of the night, the
judge came to. The judge looked around at his surroundings and suddenly realized
where he was. He got pretty excited and rushed over to alert the guard. But
instead of being any help, the guard was terrified and promptly ran
off.
Fortunately, though, the guard returned with a friend, and they
released the newly-revived judge. The judge's first thought was to phone his
wife and reassure her that he really wasn't dead. Unfortunately, he got no
farther than, "Honey... it's me," when his wife screamed and
fainted.
So, he decided that the best course of action was to enlist some
friends. He went to the houses of several friends; but because they all had
heard the news from his distraught wife, they all doubted that he was really
alive. They were all convinced he was a ghost.
Finally, in a last desperate effort, he contacted a friend in another
city who hadn't heard about his death. And that person was able to convince his
family and friends that the judge really was alive.
That story almost sounds like one of the Gospel writers could have
written it, doesn't it? It sure sounds like the passage from John this morning.
Traditional Story. We have not been able to verify the veracity of
this story.
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Watch and You'll See
This story is about three accountants who doubted their three
engineer friends. They were traveling by train to a conference. The accountants
bought three tickets, but the engineers only bought one. "How are three people
going to travel on only one ticket?" an accountant asked.Watch and You'll See
"Watch and you'll see," said an engineer.
They all boarded the train. The accountants took their seats, but the
three engineers crammed into a restroom and closed the door behind them. The
train departed the station and soon the conductor came through the car asking
for tickets. He knocked on the restroom door and said, "Ticket, please." The
door opened a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The
conductor took it and moved on.
The accountants agree that this is a rather clever idea so after the
conference, they decide to duplicate the engineers' feat. They buy only one
ticket, but are astonished when the engineers buy no ticket at all! "How are you
going to travel without a ticket?" the accountants ask. Watch and you'll see,
reply the engineers.
When they boarded the train, the accountants crammed into a restroom
with their ticket while the three engineers did the same in a nearby restroom.
After the train departed the station, one of the engineers left the restroom and
walked over to the restroom where the accountants were hiding. He knocked on the
door and said, "Ticket, please."
Author unknown
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God's Back
It was Saturday, the day before Easter, and Joanne Hinch of Woodland
Hills, California was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her
three-year-old son Dan and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids
about the meaning of Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning
greeting and response, "He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned
to surprise their Dad, a Presbyterian minister, with that greeting as soon as he
awoke the next morning. Easter arrived, little Danheard his father stirring
about in his bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and
shouted the good news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!"
David E. Leininger, "Laugh, Thomas, Laugh!"
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Ants in The Pants of Faith
Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God,
if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts
are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
Frederick Buechner
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End In Certainties
If a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he
will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1605)1.v.8. (London: Oxford
University Press, 1951), 41.
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Just Because We Can't See It
A junior high school teacher was telling her class about evolution
and how the way everything in the world was formed proved that God doesn't
exist. She said, "Look out the window. You can't see God, can you?" The kids
shook their heads. "Look around you in this room. You can't see God, can you?"
The kids shook their heads. "Then our logical conclusion is that God doesn't
exist, does He?" she asked at last, certain that she had won her audience
over.
But one girl from the back of the classroom said, "Miss Smith, just
because we can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist...
